An amateur actor shares his not so amateur thoughts on the world of acting.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Final "Private" Rehearsals.

Tonight, Thursday, will be the final rehearsal for Macbeth after a long three month process. It will be, however, open to the public, free of charge, so it's quite possible some kind of audience will be present. It's not an opening, but depending on if anybody shows, it means the days of practicing the show in private are over. Our director reserves the right to stop and correct things as needed, and has warned potential observers that this may occur, but for all intents and purposes, the "true" rehearsal process ended last night, to me.

Last night and the night before, I am happy to say, were not seen as train wrecks by anybody. They did indeed go much better than Monday night. Both nights saw me make minor missteps, but nothing to derail the entire scene. With the knowledge that I am by no means perfect, I would say I am ready to perform my part.

Last night for the first time, we had lights. We don't do much in the way of light changes in this show, but running the scenes with the actual lighting took a few minutes to get used to. And in many ways it helped; in costume under the lights you realize all the more that it's time to eat.

Our director has said nothing about it, but I think the show, myself included, ran a bit low on energy in places the last two evenings. That's the only universal structural problem I noticed from my end. Even with the energy level, the show is down to a running time of 90 minutes. It's Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, and our script is editing to be even shorter, but 90 minutes for Shakespeare is a nice clip. You can't accuse of dragging it out.

I wore a homemade beret last night. Not in love with it, but everyone has one, so it's not like it's just a me thing. That's why they call it a "uniform" after all.

The building itself looks good, too. Construction debris and other such things have been cleared out, ready to host audiences. It always feels so much better to me once a place is cleaned up. I always heard that the disconnect closed-circuit TV feed, that shows the stage on a monitor in the green room, could be up and running again tonight. I love that feature...no running around checking on cues every five minutes. Only local theatre that has that feature.

Brought some dirt from my yard to smear on my face for battle scenes. Had been using dirt there at the theatre, but it has tiny pieces of gravel in it, and I think I scratched myself a few times in the application process. It had it's advantages though; the original dirt was lighter, and took less time to apply. Dirt from my home is darker, and looked almost like paint once I wet it and put it on. I want it to look less deliberate than that. I corrected it later, but tonight I think I'll apply it differently to give it a more random look, as someone who's been fighting out in a field would have. I'll post a picture if I think of it.